MEET US
Our organisation’s history
ECP-Education Centre is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). We are a community-based social association registered with the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), No. SC 047747.
To cultivate, foster and keep alive the memory and traditions of Poland within the Polish diaspora community (Polonia), living in and around Edinburgh. This includes supporting Polish immigrants to integrate their lives with the area and local community.
The ECP organises and coordinates methodological workshops for teachers of the Polish diaspora in Scotland and runs a chain of Academies of Polish Language, (General Maczek’s Academy of Polish language)
to ensure that young generations growing up away from their homeland, retain their knowledge of the Polish language; both in speech and writing. Two such new academies were launched in September 2015 in Dalkeith and Edinburgh and a third in 2019 in Musselburgh.
BRANCHES
The beginning of our activity
We became operational in September 2015, when our two Academies opened in Dalkeith and Edinburgh. Following on, the Musselburgh branch was opened in September 2019.
These locations were not accidental - we want classes to be conducted in places where Polish children live.
OFFER
Many years of teaching experience
Our school’s teaching programmes are tailored to cater for the specific needs of Polish children. There are Polish language classes with elements of Polish history and geography included. Mathematics classes are also introduced from the first grade onwards.
Representatives from our schools have attended important cultural events, such as the unveiling of General Maczek's bench and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at St. Mary’s Cathedral, (as a thank-you to Scotland for its hospitality to Poles and a tribute to the Polish Government-in-Exile and armed forces who kept alive the idea of an independent homeland’), as well as ceremonies at the Wojtek-the-Bear monument and at the grand opening of General Maczek's Alley.
PASSION
HOBBIES/PURSUITS
Our pupils regularly take part in various competitions and educational projects. The biggest ones to date have been:
- ‘Young Explorers of Polish and Scottish Heritage’ where our pupils visited and got to know about Polish heritage places in Scotland.
- An educational project of the ‘Polish Community Association’ and ‘Polonia Family’ undertaken in conjunction with Primary School No.1, (The Home Army Memorial), in Ostroda, Poland.
- An ECP project entitled ‘The banner of the Polish Language Academy (General Maczek’s Academy of Polish language)’, carried out jointly with the General Stanislaw Maczek Memorial Trust and the Polish Consulate in Edinburgh.
- The project ‘General Maczek’s Academy of Polish Language Tartan’, developed with Lesley Duncan, ending with an official closing event where both Mr. Andrzej Maczek and Mrs. Karolina Maczek-Skillen took part in.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
Our staff teach children at our schools to develop their skills in the following areas:
Physical activities
Art classes
Theatrical and vocal classes
Scrabble word gaming
Learning to code
Chess
Our children can thus develop important life skills and broaden their knowledgebase, helping them to realise their aspirations, hobbies/interests and to make many new friends. The focus is on educating through play, where the process of learning new and interesting facts and information becomes enjoyable.
